Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on HP (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 26,861 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the average volume of 16,470 call options.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company's stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in HP by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $3,649,919,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,441 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in HP in the second quarter valued at $62,672,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its position in HP by 10,188.2% in the first quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 1,777,912 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $53,680,000 after purchasing an additional 1,760,631 shares in the last quarter. DME Capital Management LP grew its position in HP by 108.7% in the second quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $118,124,000 after purchasing an additional 1,757,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in HP by 6.2% in the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $786,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on HPQ shares. Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.55.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $37.44. The stock had a trading volume of 5,059,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,947,160. HP has a one year low of $25.67 and a one year high of $39.52. The company has a market cap of $36.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.07. The business's 50 day moving average is $34.91 and its 200-day moving average is $33.66.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

HP Company Profile

HP Inc provides products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. It operates through Personal Systems and Printing segments. The Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, retail point-of-sale systems, displays and other related accessories, software, support, and services for the commercial and consumer markets.